Flower remedies are made by floating the freshly picked blooms in bowls of spring water and leaving them in sunlight on a cloudless day. In this way, the water is "potentized" by the essence of the nower, which is believed to have entered the liquid. The potentized water is then mixed in fixed proportions with brandy, which acts as a preservative, and stored in a dark glass bottle.

Although there are now many varieties of flower remedies made around the world, most are prepared in this way. Unlike many modern herbal medicines, flower essences do not contain any artificial chemical substances, except for the brandy preservative.

How Flower Remedies Work

The remedies are normally taken by dropping a few drops of the essence into a small amount of still mineral water. This mixture is then slowly sipped.

Though plant-based, flower remedies are more homeopathic than herbal in the way they are said to work. That is, they work psychologically and psychically at the energy level, rather than chemically. Supporters describe them as "liquid energy" because they believe they encapsulate the flowers' healing energies and present them in a form that can be used therapeutically in the simplest and most effective way.

Flower remedies are said to deal with and overcome negative emotions, and in this way encourage a sense of enhanced personal well-being, which is then extended to physical health through improved powers of self-healing.

There are several other excellent sources of Flower Remedies. The first of these are made by Perelandra Flower Essences. Perelandra is a wonderful place of nature, founded by Machaelle Small Wright. They grow their own flowers and make essences. The Perelandra essences work deeply and at a more spiritual level and are useful for deep seated emotional problems. Some essences help with the physical body such as Celery which restores balance to the immune system when it is stressed or overworked, and during long-term viral or bacterial infections, tomato also helps the body in throwing off infection or disease.

There is no accepted research yet to support this idea of a psychic-psychological effect, but flower remedies remain widely popular throughout the world and a large number of people swear by them. The concept behind this therapy is often difficult to grasp, but there are several clinical studies that suggest that the therapy does work on the mental and physical health of clients. Perhaps the most successful and popular example is Bach's Rescue Remedy, which acts as emergency treatment to reduce the effects of trauma and shock after an accident, or in stressful situations' and through that stimulates the healing powers of the body. This remedy has attracted an extraordinary amount of interest from other alternative practitioners and, increasingly, conventional medical doctors.